I actually have some running to report. The indoor conference championship meet was last Thursday night at Glenbrook South High Schooland I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from my girls. I know Courtney and Jessica set goals for each race, but I didn’t ask what they were. Five minutes before the start of her race I decided to tell Jess that the indoor conference record for the 800 was 2:19 set in 2000. Her eyes immediately went to the record board and I saw the look on her face that told me one thing; she’s going for it. 2:17 later and she holds the new indoor conference record. She also ran the fourth leg of the 4 x 400 relay in 61 seconds to give New Trier the win (Photo above). As for Courtney and the 1,600, I thought a 5:15-5:20 would be a great first race of the season. When the gun sounded, I watched her complete her first lap and wondered if she thought she was running the 400. She was flying. I didn’t have a watch on her and there was not a clock set up at the track. When she finished, Debbie (mom) came over to show me her watch; 4:56. I thought it was a mistake. How did she do that? She beat the indoor record by 2 seconds (which she set last year) and currently has the #1 time in the state. Her All-State teammate, sophomore Mimi Smith, finished second in 5:10 giving her the 11th fastest indoor time in IL. New Trier went on to win the team indoor title too.
In my first two articles we have established I was not a high school runner. I can’t quite say I ran in college either. I think I ran 5-6 times, usually to La Bamba, the local Champaign burrito joint when I realized it was 1:55 a.m. and my friend, Dave, and I needed our late night fix before they closed at 2 a.m.. There was also that time in Florida on Spring Break when I decided to run from a portly Ft. Meyers cop that had somehow thought the can I was carrying was an open beer. This was so absurd; I decided to run in protest to answering his silly questions.
My lack of physical exercise came to a screeching halt out of college. The girl I was dating senior year (now wife) moved to Chicago to take a job after graduation. I decided it was serious enough to move to Chicago too. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a job lined up upon graduation.
So, I came to Chicago looking for work. My days would be spent looking for a job from 10:00-10:05 a,m., and then chillin with some friends at Wrigley Field in the afternoon. This is the point where I came to a major crossroads. My girlfriend would work all day then come home around 6 p.m.. I had not seen her all day but she was ready to GO RUNNING to get her daily exercise. Huh? It was decision time. Do I want to try to run with her so we can spend some time together, or take a second nap? Ok, let’s try this. I think I made it about 10 minutes that first day. We would leave from her Barry Ave apartment in the Lakeview area of Chicago and head down toward the lake. My cardio base was not very established at this point for obvious reasons. But, I knew if I wanted to hang with her, I had to keep working at this. Soon, I was keeping up with her down to the North Avenue Bridge and back. What the heck, I’m a runner!?
Having grown up in a swimming family, I figured somewhere inside me there was swimming DNA. To find this out, I signed up for my first triathlon the next summer. I went into this tri having done zero swim training. The only thing that kept me from drowning was the fact that in the early 1990’s the Chicago Triathlon swim leg took place along the enclosed area north of Lake Point Tower. The water was about 5 feet deep the whole way or I would have drown. I survived this first race and decided right there that I could do okay if I trained just a little.
Now, 20+ years later I have made up for my lack of physical exercise the 1st 20+ years of my life. Our kids have seen us put exercise as a priority in our lives and I know it has had an impact on the athletes they are today. They have been to many of Debbie (running) and my (tri’s) competitions and see us exercising/training 6 days a week. They also saw the importance of establishing goals for competitions. Debbie’s goal this summer is to go sub 19 minutes for a 5K. My goals for triathlons are a bit more my speed; don’t drown, try to make it to a port-a-potty if I feel the “rumble belly” coming on fast (if you are a runner, you know what I’m talking about), and get myself in good posing position for the Finisher Photo (very important).
I don’t know what Courtney and Jessica have set as their goals for their last season, but if I had to guess it would be to add a real low number to their list of All-State track finishes (2, 2, 2, 4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, and 9th). And remember, it is all about the finishing photo.